Bihar polls: NextGen of Mandal politics now in election from Madhepura district

PATNA: In the last three decades since the then VP Singh government implemented one of the many recommendations of the Mandal Commission providing 27% quota to the other backward classes (OBCs), the politics in Bihar’s Madhepura district- known as the ‘Vatican City of Yadavas’- has seen a lot of changes.
Nikhil Mandal, the grandson of B P Mandal who headed the Mandal Commission, and Subhashini Yadav, daughter of Mandal agitation protagonist Sharad Yadav, are contesting the current assembly polls from two different constituencies in Madhepura district, which saw a strong agitation in early 1990s in support of implementation of the Commission’s recommendation.
Riding on the wave of Mandal agitation, Sharad won the Lok Sabha election for the first time from Madhepura in 1991. He again won the seat in 1996 general election but lost to the RJD boss Lalu Prasad in 1998. Sharad later won two more Lok Sabha elections from Madhepura seat.
B P Mandal himself represented Madhepura in the Lok Sabha three times by winning parliamentary elections in 1967, 1968 and 1977.
Now his grandson Nikhil is contesting the current assembly polls from Madhepura assembly seat for the first time as the JD(U) candidate. Nikhil’s father and senior Mandal’s son Manindra Kumar Mandal represented the Madhepura seat in the assembly from 2005 to 2010 as an JD(U) MLA.
Similarly, Sharad’s daughter Subhashini is contesting from Bihariganj seat in Madhepura district on Congress ticket. She also is contesting assembly polls for the first time.